Embedded software developers today are a bit spoiled. Many microcontrollers come with an ecosystem that includes peripheral drivers, an RTOS, middleware and even example application...
Read More >>>Category Archives: Embedded Basics
Understanding Weak Symbols
If a developer closely looks at framework and library files, they may come across functions that have __weak in front of them. The weak symbol...
Read More >>>There is No Hardware
My favorite line from the Matrix is that “there is no spoon”, and today that is a wise statement for embedded software developers to take to heart. Embedded software developers traditionally are hardware centric, believing...
Read More >>>Finding a Buffer Overflow issue using a Map File
Buffer overflows are one of those bugs that wreak havoc on embedded software. The system appears to be working perfectly and then all of a...
Read More >>>Celebrating the Microprocessors 50th Birthday
Happy 50th Birthday to the microprocessor! This month, 50 years ago, the first microprocessor became commercially available, the Intel 4004. This little 4-bit processor launched...
Read More >>>A Simple, Scalable RTOS Initialization Design Pattern
I often find that developers initialize task code in seemingly random places throughout their application. This can make it difficult to make changes to the...
Read More >>>3 Strategies for Handling Errors in Embedded Software
It’s very tempting to assume that a system is going to behave as perfectly in the field as it does on the engineering bench. During...
Read More >>>Announcing the 2021 Embedded Online Conference
It’s official! The 4th annual Embedded Online Conference is on the calendar for May 18 – 20, 2021. Once again this year, Stephane Boucher and...
Read More >>>3 Tips for Writing External Device Drivers
A major advantage to using a microcontroller today is that embedded software developers typically don’t have to write their own drivers anymore. Instead, it’s widespread...
Read More >>>5 Best Practices for Over-the-Air (OTA) Updates
In my last post, I explored how OTA updates are typically performed using Amazon Web Services and FreeRTOS. OTA updates are critically important to developers...
Read More >>>How to Organize a Firmware Project
There are many benefits to having a software project that is organized. First, it makes it easy to find modules and files when you them...
Read More >>>3 Tips for Validating Sensor and Communication Data in Embedded Systems
Software engineers have a bad habit of being very optimistic. This optimism often doesn’t just...
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